An escalating war of words between teachers and defenders of Israel reached a dramatic, if anticlimactic, conclusion last night.
After protesters picketed outside a Toronto local of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, members of District 12 defeated a motion calling for the criticism of Israel over its mistreatment of the Palestinians, as well as the development of a curriculum to deal with issues of injustice in the classroom.
Len Rudner, national director of community relations for the Canadian Jewish Congress, said the motion had raised concerns it was unbalanced and would put teachers in a position where they would be taking sides in the long-running conflict rather than fostering healthy debate.
“The union has the right to involve itself in matters of the larger world, but it has a responsibility to do so in a constructive and balanced way,” he said.
Mr. Rudner said he was confident all along that high school teachers would reject the proposal by two of their colleagues, but that democracy had to run its course. Going in to the meeting, many teachers said they had come to vote it down, judging it too polarizing and unhelpful in guiding them on the job.
“I actually found it quite offensive,” said Susan Magerman, of Oasis Alternative Secondary School. “The motion put forward was lacking in facts and one-sided.
“It’s really important to have such discussions in the classroom, but it has to be balanced and productive, otherwise you’re just perpetuating stereotypes and bias and prejudice.”
Julia Lamoca, of Oakwood Collegiate, said the motion put teachers in a difficult position.
“It’s sort of motherhood and apple pie to want peace in the Middle East. It’s in everyone’s best interests,” she said. “However, I am very hesitant about imposing curriculum. I for one don’t know enough to be able to deal with all the issues in a fair way.”
What began as a motion by two of District 12’s 6,000 members took on a life of its own after Jewish groups mobilized a campaign against it. Frank Dimant, the executive director of B’nai B’rith, likened the motion to “bringing hate into the classroom.”
Even Israel’s ambassador to Canada weighed in.
“Polarizing the classroom will do nothing but further ignorance of history,” Alan Baker said. “Not only is this a gratuitous attempt at politicizing the Ontario education system but it is another avenue to disseminate misinformation and disinformation regarding the present situation that faces the Middle East.”
The president of District 12 of the OSSTF said he was bewildered by the backlash and allegations of anti-Semitism surrounding a motion that the local union chapter hadn’t even debated yet, let alone endorsed.
Doug Jolliffe, who said he didn’t even agree with the proposal, called it a “bullying campaign” aimed at intimidating union members and undermining the democratic process.
Despite his explanations that the union chapter is simply following its constitution — which does not allow the executive to quash unpopular motions — he said alerts B’nai B’rith put out to its members resulted in a tidal wave of “abusive” phone calls that have reduced staff to tears and forced them to turn off their phones.
“Further, the e-mails we received as a result of B’nai B’rith’s alert showed an astonishing lack of understanding of the meaning of tolerance and some were outright hate-filled,” he wrote in a public response posted to the union’s Web site.
About a dozen demonstrators — mainly youth — chanted, “Teach peace, not hate,” “We’ve jihad enough,” and “Vote against Hamas,” as teachers arrived at the union local offices.
Gregory Levey, a professor of communications at Ryerson University who has studied rhetoric surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said the debate on the sensitive issue in Canada is always fraught.
“It is just played out here in such a crazy w ay,” he said, pointing to the riot that scuttled a planned lecture by former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Montreal’s Concordia University in 2002.
